SAN FRANCISCO — Intel Corp. representatives on Wednesday (Nov. 6) sketched a world in which devices roam seamlessly through different networks in and outside the home, and they announced baby steps toward that goal: near-term shipment of a device with 802.11a and .11b wireless LAN functionality.
"There is a convergence around 802.11 and . . . it's going to be even more rapid" than that experienced by Ethernet, said Jim Johnson, vice president of Intel's Communications Group (Hillsboro, Ore.). Johnson made the comments during a briefing here, days before the giant Comdex trade show opens in Las Vegas, where a number of companies are expected to tout integrated 802.11a and .11b solutions.
Johnson said Intel would ship its integrated 802.11 (or Wi-Fi) module, named Calexico, in the first quarter of 2003 as part of its Banias processor platform. Intel's strategy for the Wi-Fi marketplace is to launch the Banias processor for notebook PCs next year, deploying power-saving technologies to ease the battery drain.
While some analysts question the optimism, Intel believes that 90 percent of mobile PCs will have wireless functionality by 2004.
"People are much more educated about mobile computers today," Johnson said. Combine that with a 90-nanometer process that brings analog, mixed-signal and silicon germanium capability to bear on the problem, and dual-band solutions are enabled, he said. "As attach rates rise, it's all about price-performance," he said.
Johnson claimed the integrated device would draw half the power and be a third the size of a multichip solution.
Roxanne Gryder, marketing development manager with Intel Laboratories in Hillsboro, described a future — as soon as two years hence — in which mobile devices roam seamlessly through any number of network protocols: WAN, LAN and PANs. In an interview, she declined to speculate on the type of silicon design necessary to implement such functionality or at what technology node it might become economically feasible. She also acknowledged that security for wireless systems remains "a big issue. You do need an IT manager to implement some of these solutions, and that's a problem," she said.
With an eye toward helping deliver broadband networking to unserved or underserved communities, Intel has developed a pilot project at Hillsboro in which a basestation with four directed antennas serves a 20-mile radius around the campus with 802.11b networking. The wireless "last mile" project serves 15 homes, including Johnson's.
The problem is that "it's not hugely scaleable," Gryder admitted. Up to 25 clients could use each of the antennae, she said.
